Bora (Australian)
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Bora is an
Bora terminology
The word Bora was originally taken from the
Bora grounds and mythology
The appearance of the site varies among cultures, but it is often associated with
In south-east Australia, the Bora is often associated with the creator-spirit Baiame. In the Sydney region, large earth mounds were made, shaped as long bands or simple circles. Sometimes the boys would have to pass along a path marked on the ground representing the transition from childhood to manhood, and this path might be marked by a stone arrangement or by spirit footprints (mundowa),[6] cut into the rock. In other areas of south-east Australia, a Bora site might consist of two circles of stones, and the boys would start the ceremony in the larger, public, one, and end it in the other, smaller, one, to which only initiated men are admitted. Robert Hamilton Mathews (1897) gives an excellent eye-witness account of a Bora ceremony, and explains the common use of the two circles. One very fine example of a two ring bora ceremonial site used to exist in Alberton, Queensland till it was destroyed, and made way for a pineapple plantation in the late 1950s. The smaller southern ring contained a dolmen-like structure.[7]
The rings are joined by a sacred walkway. While most are confined to south-east
Bora rings in the form of circles of individually placed stones are evident in Werrikimbe National Park in northern New South Wales.
Notes
- ^ a b c Rolls & Johnson 2010, p. 40.
- ^ Fuller, Hamacher & Norris 2013, p. 31.
- ^ Fuller, Hamacher & Norris 2013, p. 30.
- ^ Berndt 1974, p. 28.
- ^ a b Fuller, Hamacher & Norris 2013, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Prineas & Gold 1997, p. 184.
- ^ Ponosov 1974, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Frankel 1982, pp. 89–97.
- ^ Eidelson 1997, pp. 92–97.
Sources
- ISBN 978-9-004-03861-5.
- Eidelson, Meyer (1997). The Melbourne Dreaming: A Guide to the Aboriginal Places of Melbourne. Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 978-0-855-75306-1.
- Footprints on Rock. Sydney: Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. 1997. ISBN 978-0-7313-1002-9.
- Frankel, David (1982). "Earth rings at Sunbury, Victoria". Archaeology in Oceania. 17 (2): 89–97. .
- Fuller, Robert S.; Hamacher, Duane W.; Norris, Ray P. (2013). "Astronomical Orientations of Bora Ceremonial Grounds in Southeast Australia". S2CID 119268136.
- Mathews, Robert Hamilton (1897). "The Burbung of the Darkinung Tribes" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 10 (1): 1–12.
- Ponosov, Vladimir Vasil'evich (1974). Results of an archaeological survey of the Southern region of Moreton Bay and of Moreton Island (1963-1964) (PDF). University of Queensland.
- Prineas, Peter; Gold, Henry (1997). Wild Places: Wilderness in Eastern New South Wales. Katsehamos & the Great Idea. ISBN 978-0-858-81158-4.
- Rolls, Mitchell; Johnson, Murray (2010). Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines. ISBN 978-0-810-87475-6.